Oral Health:

Consider the five key action areas outlined in the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion (WHO, 1986) and discuss how they could be applied to the practice of oral health promotion.

Include the following-

• Outline of the five key action areas in the Ottawa Charter and consider how they can be applied to the practice of oral health promotion – include supporting evidence and relevant examples.
• Discuss the importance of a comprehensive approach to oral health promotion, whereby strategies at each of the five levels from personal skills to healthy public policy are applied in an integrated fashion

Oral health is managed based on objective measures such as the presence and severity of dental caries and periodontal disease. In recent years, oral health researchers and practitioners have shown increasing interest in a widened array of physical, psychological, and social factors found to influence patients’ oral health. In this article, we introduce a behavior change coaching approach that can be used to enhance psychosocial diagnosis and client-centered delivery of health-promoting interventions. Briefly, this health coaching approach is based on an interactive assessment (both physical and psychological), a non-judgmental exploration of patients’ knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs, a mapping of patient behaviors that may contribute to disease progression, gauging patient motivation, and tailoring health communication to encourage health-promoting behavior change. Developed in a clinical setting, this coaching model is supported by interdisciplinary theory, research, and practice on health behavior change